


The Strange Disappearance of Sarah Williams

by romans



Category: Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series), Labyrinth, Labyrinth (1986)
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-07
Updated: 2019-04-07
Packaged: 2020-01-05 22:36:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18375473
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/romans/pseuds/romans
Summary: This week on Buzzfeed Unsolved we're covering the disappearance of actress Sarah Williams, who went missing under very strange circumstances twenty-four years ago in Northern California.





	The Strange Disappearance of Sarah Williams

**This week on Buzzfeed Unsolved we're covering the disappearance of actress Sarah Williams, who went missing under very strange circumstances twenty-four years ago in Northern California.**

Oooh, are we gonna maybe do a little road trip?

We'll see. That being said, let's get into the case.

**On January 15th, 1995, a wrecked car was found on the side of the road near Lake Tahoe, California. The car belonged to an actress named Sarah Williams, who had been seen by witnesses earlier that day, 30 miles away in Truckee, where she stopped for dinner. She had reportedly been on her way to a ski resort for a holiday. There was a heavy snowstorm that night, and the car had flipped off of a bend in the road and hit several trees. But there wasn't anyone in the drivers' seat by the time authorities discovered it.**

**When emergency crews arrived at the scene, the front of Sarah's car was folded almost in half. When they managed to open up the car, though, Sarah was nowhere to be seen. None of the windows were broken, and all of the doors were locked. Her purse was in the passenger seat, and her bag was in the trunk. There was no sign of Sarah anywhere in the car.**

Oh. Oh! Like, she was not in the car. I thought-- like, maybe she had walked away. But maybe not?

She shouldn't have survived, is my understanding. And if she did there was no way for her to open her door, it was too damaged by the crash. 

It was really like, jammed shut.

Yeah.

Yeah, jeez. So you're essentially saying she vanished into thin air.

Yep.

Wow. I mean, she must have gotten out of the car somehow, nothing else makes sense. Hold up-

What?

Is this an aliens case? Is that where this is going?

(wheeze) 

I don't know. Let's rewind and look at the suspects. 

Wait, suspects? How are there suspects? What could any person possibly have to do with this?

She had some... some odd people in her life. 

Right.

**Suspect # 1: Jay King, Sarah's agent. Sarah had moved to LA from New York in the early nineties, looking to work as an actress, but by all reports she wasn't having much luck with that. But then, in the summer of 1994, she found an agent named Jay King, and within a month of hiring him, Sarah's career started picking up.**

I don't see what a new agent could possibly have to do with a car accident.

**Just wait, it gets weird. King was apparently present at most of Sarah's performances, and he brought her bouquets of flowers every night. He also gifted her with jewellery. Sarah's friends described him as intense and, quote, "unsettling". Witnesses overheard them arguing in Sarah's dressing room multiple times, and she was heard by one friend telling King she needed, quote, "more time." End quote.**

Thaaat's not creepy at all. So, kind of a stalker. Also, "more time"? For what? To- to do her makeup? Or was it, like, "Please don't kill me yet, I'm too young!" Did--

(wheeze) 

Like she made a deal with the Devil.

Here's a photo of them from about a year before the accident. 

Wow!

I know, right? 

Those eyes! And look at her! I--

Yeah, old crazy-eyes Jay. She doesn't seem to mind in that photo.

She looks like she's on drugs.

Ole JK there is pretty dapper, though. Creepy. But dapper. Yeah. Yeah. Hey, do you think there was --

What?

Do you think there was, like, a little of the old casting couch? You know-- Don't look at me like that, you know what I mean.

I mean. Maybe? 

I will say this, I would not like to meet that man. I can't even tell you what it is about him.

I don't-- I don't think we're gonna meet him. For. Reasons.

Yeah, until he watches this show... Anyways. None of this explains the car crash.

**Oh, there's more. After the accident, authorities tried to reach out to Jay King, only to discover that no such person existed in any records. The address he'd given as his home address AND as his workplace led to an old lot, occupied only by the remains of a building that had burned to the ground in 1954.**

...

...

So he's fake?! He's a fake person. My brain--- (wheeze) my brain is breaking.

He has never been seen or heard from since that night. 

Oh, now HE disappears. That's... that's not suspicious at all. Also, what are we suspecting him of? That he tampered with her car somehow? Cut a brake line somewhere? Boobytrapped the engine?

I... I guess so, yeah. 

Were they arguing right before she crashed? Was she with anyone? How did this play out? I'm very curious.

Well, there are some theories on that, actually.

Oh, this should be good. Let's hear 'em.

**Moving on- suspect # 2 was Bradley Walshe. Walshe was Sarah's on-again, off-again boyfriend. He and King hated each other intensely.**

Well, there's a surprise.

**After Sarah disappeared, Walshe went out of his way to blame King, and is convinced that Sarah was kidnapped from her vehicle, somehow.**

Can we just- take a second. Come down to earth here? Do you know much about the place where she crashed? Was it like, populated, or was it one of those national parks where people just go missing and are never found again?

She was in a very heavily wooded area, with not a lot of people around, in a snow storm. The nearest settlement, Sattley, has a population of 500. And the other nearest town only has a population of 200. So it's definitely plausible to say that she just walked into a- a mine shaft. 

Or got eaten by a mountain lion. Eugh.

But that doesn't answer the question of how she got out of the car. 

Eaten by a bear. This is just unpleasant.

**Theory number one: Human interference. Authorities pursued the possibility that Walshe tampered with Sarah's car or drove her off the road, but he had a solid alibi for the night she went missing, and after that they ran out of lines of inquiry. They searched the woods when the weather cleared, but there was no trace of Sarah anywhere. Jay King hasn't been found to this day.**

So the police just kind of shrugged and went, "Well, I'll be darned. We tried our best, boys."

"Maybe if we just ignore it it will go away."

Yeah, no one's gonna notice a missing girl. Happens all the time!

Walshe has some theories, though. _He_ claimed that King followed Sarah into the mountains after a particularly bad argument, hired some cronies to kidnap her just outside of Truckee, and somehow managed to drive her car off of a winding mountain road at fifty miles an hour, without leaving any evidence of any of this. 

Yeah, sure, and then he flew her away to his castle in the sky. Because he's an ALIEN.

Walshe also claims that Sarah and King had some history, from back when she lived on the East coast.

She moved to California when she was, what, twenty?

Yeah. 23?

So any "history" they had would have to stem back to when she was very young.

Which is creepy. That's essentially what Walshe was implying.

I don't know about you but, I call bullshit on that. I wouldn't work with someone who, what, maybe abused me when I was a teenager. Or whatever he was "implying". I can't think of a single reason for her to work alongside someone in... in that situation.

Although it would explain why he had a false name. And why he disappeared into thin air.

I just- what reason could she possibly have to work with this guy for years? I mean, I know terrible things happen to people, in- y'know- but I'm not sure I buy this. And besides we only have the word of her disgruntled ex to go on. 

It just doesn't fit.

Walshe claimed that Jay King was a member of the Illuminati. Also, I have to wonder who gains anything from kidnapping someone in a very strange way, almost in a way that'll bring more attention than maybe it would have otherwise.

Ah, our old lizardy friends. Great! Yeah, this boyfriend is really reliable. So somewhere between Truckee and this-- this crash site, she has dinner, gets into her car alone, drives into a snowstorm, and simultaneously smashes her car to smithereens and disappears into thin air. That's one hell of a trick. And maybe someone else was involved? It just seems like a lot of work, to win an argument.

For me, the strange part is that she isn't better-known. People just seem to forget she even existed.

Huh. 

**Theory number two: She disappeared herself.**

Like, she got out of the car and-- and-- put a brick on the gas pedal? How simple. How charming.

And then she locked all the doors and pushed it off a cliff, and walked off into a snowstorm in the Sierras, at night?

Maybe her old boyfriend was there to give her a lift.

I mean, it's better than theory number three.

Oh no.

**Theory number three: Aliens.**

No.

I only report what I find.

Besides, how are these theoretical aliens gonna- gonna see her in the snow?

Maybe she saw them, crashed, and then they took her. Maybe.

Or, hey, it was our old buddy The Watcher. And his pals.

Hah! (wheeze)

Maybe- maybe Jay King is the Watcher.

He could well be. Who knows?

I'll admit it, I'm stumped.

Or it was a bizarre plan to disappear?

And escape from Jay King? Hmmmm.

...

I think-- all aliens aside, she probably found a way out of the car, got lost in the woods, and is, sadly, still out there. It's really a very sad story. Her agent is shady as heck. But even shady mystery men with lots of money can't magically extract a person from a mangled car. In a snowstorm. In the mountains. It's just not a thing!

As far as we know, anyways.

**We decided to take a trip out to the crash site, to get a feel for the area and see if we could find any trace of Sarah Williams.**

Well, here we are, just outside of scenic Lake Tahoe, in roughly the location where Sarah Williams crashed her car.

Or where she spontaneously teleported and then her car crashed.

Maybe she was raptured. Just, whoosh! Right on up.

It's kind of peaceful out here. I can see how someone might crash, though. Narrow roads, lots of curves, a little snowstorm-- bam.

Yeah. I'm gonna go take a look around.

I don't know if this exactly where she went off the road, but you can see how remote it is out here.

There's... there's nothing out there. Just trees. Shrubs. Cool rocks. That kind of thing. Look, I found a sparkly one!

No sign of Sarah Williams?

Nothing. This was basically a pointless trip.

I guess it would have been a little far-fetched to find something, after so many years...

A little. Hey, I think there were burgers back in Tahoe. You want a burger?

I could go for a burger. Uh. Sarah, if you're out here somewhere-- well-- I guess we just hope you're at peace.

Yeah. Sorry.

There's nothing here, let's go.

Just gotta drive real careful. 

 

**Did Sarah Williams get out of the car under her own power? Was she taken? Was she even in the car in the first place? So far, the mystery remains - UNSOLVED.**


End file.
